Tastfully Lit Building at Hefang Street 河坊街
The Wushanyi International Youth Hostel has a great location at the old street area in Hangzhou. The streets here were lined with decades old houses or maybe they were built to look like there was decades old houses. Either way, they were quite convincing. The Hefang Street is the most significant street in this area and it is not surprisingly the most crowded one. The crowd here was actually still okay since a lot of them as dispersed throughout the area, one thing I like about Hangzhou – despite all the tourism, it doesn’t really feel crowded.
Old Street Area in Hangzhou 杭州 Notice the Canal on the Right
Hefang Street is lined with numerous souvenir shops as Hangzhou it well known for a lot of things that you can buy back for your loved ones. First and foremost was Longjing Tea, and secondly, their myriad of snacks that come prepacked for easy purchasing and storage. Most of the prices here are the same and I don’t really know which shops are more reputable than the others. I would normally judge based on the number of people going in the shop, but this is China, there will always be a lot of people inside the shops.
Hefang Street is a great place to walk at night since the buildings are all lit and shops are all open. My friend had a field day zipping in and out of the shops but eventually ended up buying some tea and some souvenirs from a random shop. I guess this really is her thing as she was quite impatient when we were visiting some of the real sights in Hangzhou.
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